Swapping the meat for vegetables
Becoming vegan!
For the first week of June, I decided to go 100% vegan.
According to the dictionary, a vegan is a person who does not consume or use animal products, and I kept to this rule strictly over the week.
Before I get into it, let me just share a bit about my diet for the past few years. At 12, I became pescetarian and transitioned from eating pretty much everything to eating pretty much everything besides meat. I carried this on till I was about 15 because it was working really well for me- I absolutely love seafood and I especially didn’t want to eat meat after we had watched videos of the cruel treatment and breeding of chickens and cows at school. I wasn’t that strict though, and I “broke” my diet quite a few times on special occasions like birthdays or when we were on holiday or on Christmas, and this didn’t really bother me. When I turned 15 though I went back to eating meat for the first six months of the year, and I found that eating meat regularly was not helping my body at all and I wasn't feeling as good as I used to so I transitioned back to being pescetarian and I still am.
My family has always been vegetarian for 4 days in a week, and I’ve tried out being vegetarian for 1 month several times. So, this month I wanted to step up to the challenge of being vegan- just for 1 week so as to not intimidate myself. Being vegan seems like a scary commitment. Especially living in Malaysia where this is not such a common thing, finding vegan alternatives is definitely more challenging than in other places. Nevertheless, I was excited to try it out after reading about many physical and mental health benefits as well as the wonders it does for the entire environment. There are so many different studies encouraging being vegan, but at the same time I also came across several ‘why not to be vegan’ articles, so I suppose like anything, being vegan has its pros and cons. Ultimately it’s your decision on how you feel!
Because my family isn’t vegan, I had to take the responsibility of cooking almost all of my meals so that I would know the exact ingredients going into the dish. As a 16-year-old who has to do online school along with many other commitments, I was initially worried about how much time I would be spending in the kitchen instead of doing the things I enjoy like reading and writing. Well, now that my week is over, I can honestly say that it wasn’t bad at all. Cooking was not only quite quick, but I also enjoyed trying out different ingredients and coming up with new recipes. Eating organic and natural food was not only very healthy but also tasted super good, contrary to my thought that food would be plain without seafood flavour.
If you’re thinking about becoming vegan here is how I would recommend going about it:
#1 Start by cutting the meat out of your diet, gradually and then completely
#2 Transition to being vegetarian (eggs allowed but no meat or seafood!)
#3 After a couple of weeks, try being vegan for one week (no animal products at all)
#4 Ease yourself into becoming a full-time vegan by trying out two weeks, then three weeks, etc.
Tips I’ve learned from my experience:
#1 Go through the steps gradually and at your own pace
#2 Don’t worry if you crash a couple of times- that’s totally normal
#3 Cook and bake at home so that you know exactly what goes into your meals
#4 Find vegan alternatives for your favourite things or try to make your own
Like I said earlier, I only did this for 1 week, so I’m at Step 3 right now. I actually didn’t encounter many difficulties and that’s probably because of how short the time period was. I have, however, noticed that a lot of vegan products like walnut or almond milk are more expensive than cow milk but I don’t really think there’s a way of avoiding costs like that, unfortunately. If you have any suggestions or tips towards becoming vegan, do leave me a response as I would love to learn how to improve my lifestyle as well!
